I leave the bar together with the thugs.
It seems we will be leaving the town.
We won’t be hiding in the cover of night or passing through an underground tunnel, we’ll be forming groups and walking boldly from the front.
Of course the citizens will be wary of a bunch of villainous-looking men, but they would all be watching tensely from within their houses.
「Because even though……this place is out in the countryside, this is a good town without any wars or famine.」
「We should have appealed for the center.」
「Shh! Did you forget what happened to Leik when he did that last time!? He met a miserable end, but his wife and daughter was also sold into slavery……for now, we can only endure patiently.」
「With even the governor on their side, we can’t sneak out of town……and even if we could, the whole kingdom is in chaos ever since the king was overthrown. It’s doubtful anybody would bother with such a remote place.」
I scowl as I fold my hands behind my head.
「My ears hurt. So it’s my fault?」
「If Your Majesty didn’t do what you did, the rule would have remained stable.」
One move can have such repercussions, huh?
I don’t regret anything, but I do feel bad.
「For that reason, let’s find the boss and the base. Once we identify them, we can finish the job with a battalion.」
I check the condition of the ordinary sword I brought while chatting and hear a high-pitched shout.
「Stop, you!!」
Guards in front of the gate cross their spears, blocking our path.
They weren’t all bribed? I mean, that’s a good thing.
Aldo clicks his tongue as a knight riding a horse……probably the guard captain, appears.
「You’re behind schedule. The chaos in the center has recently begun to subside and the eyes of the kingdom are on us. Don’t do your own thing and trouble the governor!」
The moment you mentioned a schedule, you stopped being a righteous man.
I’ll remember his face.
「There was just a little slipup. I’ll just pay extra, no need to fuss.」
Aldo hands a gold coin to the knight.
「Tch, I’ll let you off this time. I won’t overlook it again, you hear!」
「Then you’re fine if I cancel that order you made for the black-haired boy younger than ten years old? Just shut up and accept the money.」
The guard captain clears his throat, intimidating the subordinates who look at him with disdain, and stores the coin in his pocket.
「You guys know what will happen if this loss isn’t recovered, right?」
Aldo glares at his men and walks through the gate with another click of his tongue.
The guards don’t stop him.
I pass through as well, trying not to stand out by rubbing Rebecca’s ass.
The guard captain swears under his breath as he watches the row of people walk by, but stops moving when he sees me.
「Hm? Where have I……」
Don’t tell me he recognizes my face.
「Mmm……no, it can’t be.」
As expected, even if he recognizes me, he wouldn’t believe that I would join thugs.
But it’s not good if he continues suspecting me.
「Aau……aaahn!!」
Rebecca suddenly moans sharply.
Everyone’s attention concentrates on the arching Rebecca.
「Lewd woman.」
「That’s quite the outfit though.」
「Hey I told you, if you’re going to do it, do it after work. I’ll kill you.」
I chuckle vulgarly and take my hand off.
After giving Rebecca a dirty look, the guard captain scoffs and leaves.
「That was close. You saved me.」
「Our plan would be ruined if we get discovered here. Or should I say, you put your finger in my ass during the confusion, didn’t you! This outfit is so elastic you can easily slip it in through the material, please stop!」
Sorry, sorry.
「Anyway, now we know the governor and the guard captain are corrupt. The power of money is scary.」
「Weren’t you also obsessed with bonuses or whatever?」
She clears her throat and guides my hand back to her ass.
I guess that’s enough about the details, I’ll just fondle her.
We enter a certain barn of a common farmer just outside of town.
The field is deserted and the main building doesn’t have signs of anybody living in it.
「Flower.」
「Seed juice.」
Someone calls out in the dark barn before my eyes could adjust and I reflexively respond quicker than Aldo.
「――the password is different!?」
I hear the clatter of weapons being readied.
Only getting your weapons ready after finding out the password is wrong, what amateurs.
「You idiot, I’ll kill you! It’s seed, seed!!」
Aldo yells at me and then says the correct password.
Meh, I was close enough.
「Don’t scare me like that, Aldo sir……we finally made it across the northern border. Ever since that guy got demoted, we’ve been seeing more scouts and it’s making me sweat.」
The barn is lit up.
Revealed by the light are three men and five children who are gagged and have their hands bound.
There is one girl in her late teens and the others are actually children of indeterminate gender.
They must have been scolded harshly as they are silently sobbing.
「One, two, three……hey, there’s one missing.」
Aldo sends a death stare at the men, who awkwardly avert their eyes.
「Erm……that kid, he bit my finger and tried to escape……I got angry and well……」
The man taps his poor quality sword with a clink.
I unconsciously stand up, followed by Rebecca who clings to my arm as cover.
But before I could do anything, Aldo grabs the man by the neck.
「Do you know how valuable a single kid is? A blonde one from the Federation is worth no less than 20 gold. You butchered one just because your dirty finger was bitten?」
The direction of his anger is totally different, but seeing the scum argue calms me down.
「I-I’m sorry! But, you could see the bone――」
「The one that was bitten――was it this one!?」
Aldo pushes the man’s hand against the wall, then takes a broad-bladed knife lying around in the barn and chops off one finger.
His scream resounds.
The children with lifeless eyes cry loudly.
「The next time you scrap a product, I’ll rip your head off. The other two will also take a 20% cut. Any problems?」
I doubt anybody has the guts to rebel after being shown that.
The other men shake their heads vigorously.
「Then go get the next supply! With the physical strength you guys have, you should be able to kidnap a few brats so aim for some good ones.」
The two men flee hastily, chased by the man who lost a finger.
「Useless, all of them. And you guys, why are you cowering!? Hurry and bring the products to the market. I’ll beat you to a pulp if you scratch any of them, and you’re all dead if you let any of them escape!」
The thugs pick up the children.
A little girl cries, but when slapped on the cheek and threatened by a man, she bites her lip.
I’m at my limit.
I don’t care about infiltrating, I just want to murder these guys and save the children.
However, Rebecca reads my mind and whispers in my ear before I can take action.
「Even if you rampage here, you will only save five kids at most, and you will only stop a single executive and a few thugs. The trade route, the base, and the boss remain unknown. The same thing will just happen a week later. Please control yourself.」
「……」
I exhale with enough force to blow away dust and strongly grasp Rebecca’s breast to restrain myself.
「Give her to me.」
I carry two girls who are about to be grabbed by others, one in each arm, and climb onto the carriage.
「H-hiiu……」
「Uuu……scared……I’m scared.」
The girls tremble in my arms and I can hear continuous chattering of teeth.
「Hehe, they’re shaking like newly-born kittens. Not to mention they have pretty plump asses for kids. I can probably gobble them up even if I’m not a pervert.」
A thug rubs a girl’s back and slowly makes his way down to her butt, causing the girl to tense up.
I simultaneously sink the back of my foot into his face.
Of course, I hold back enough so he doesn’t die. As much as I want to kill him, it would be a problem for the plan.
I don’t speak out loud within the narrow carriage as there is risk of being overheard, but I internally repeat reassuring words and inconspicuously comfort the girls with gentle pats on the head.
Afterwards, the group continued to visit barns, dilapidated houses, and caves, picking up ‘products’, or more specifically slaves, to be sold.
The slaves’ backgrounds varied, though a majority of them were from the outer regions of the Federation and former Magrado territory, and there were even some who were transported all the way from the Empire.
「How unexpected. I thought they were a small organization making money here and there near the northern border, but they’re actually operate on a broad scale.」
Because we can’t talk in the carriage, I utilize the time given for pissing outside to chat.
「The method of transporting the slaves is also clever. The high-risk, long-distance transportation is done by a number of underlings, who bring the slaves to a low-risk area where the governor has been bribed, and then the slaves are collected by the executive, who takes them to the market.」
「Even if the underlings are arrested, only the rendezvous point they know will be exposed. If the executive isn’t there, there is……no damage, huh?」
I reply, shaking my dick as the last few drips trickle out.
「The number of slaves collected so far is roughly 30. I don’t think they want to carry this many over a long distance. They will want to head for the base where the market is to do their business.」
I’m glad I didn’t go wild out of anger.
If I waste this opportunity, it will take considerable time to investigate again.
「Once we find out the base, the boss, and the captured spy, there’s no need to hold back. I’ll kill them all.」
I pick up a rock lying by my feet, and squeeze it in my hand, crushing it into powder.
「No, this is an infiltration. It’s a plan where we inform allies to come with reinforcements!」
「That’ll depend on the situation.」
Or rather, it’ll depend on what I’m feeling.
Glancing behind me, I see the girls with their hands bound trembling as they do their business.
I loosened the ropes as much as I could and lifted them all up so they couldn’t walk barefoot, but I still felt bad that I couldn’t release them immediately.
「Just wait a bit more. It won’t be long, I promise.」
I smile at them and display my muscles to give them some peace of mind.
「What are you scaring the kids for? I’m telling you now, you better not fuck them. Their price changes by ten gold depending on whether they are virgins or not. Worse, if their holes are ripped, they’re as good as junk.」
I stop posing as Aldo warns me.
The girls wail and some even wet themselves.
Thanks for telling me, but I’m definitely going to tear you limb from limb in the end.
After retrieving a large number of slaves, we arrived at a decaying abandoned fort.
「I didn’t know there was a fort here. I had no idea even though I was a soldier for a while.」
Maybe I missed it because I never looked over the map of the northern area.
「This fort is not on maps anymore. It’s been abandoned for decades. It’s odd though.」
Rebecca’s sharp eyes survey the surroundings as she chases a nearby girl with a menacing glare.
「Even I know the best place for a bandit’s hideout is an abandoned fort. That’s why this kind of place should have been thoroughly investigated already.」
Indeed, such a fort can be seen from afar.
It’s easy to be discovered if they set up a base here.
「You’re not stupid enough to think it’s this fort, right? It’s this way……blindfold the kids!」
Tracking Aldo’s coarse remark, my eyes lay upon a wayside shrine that is also rotten.
Aldo violently kicks open the tattered shrine which is so run-down that I can’t tell who is being worshipped there.
With a deafening rattle, the ground near the shrine caves in, revealing a set of stairs leading underground.
Rebecca gulps audibly.
「The fort’s underground pantry――! I see, the fort was originally a headquarters for a large army, thus it makes sense for it to have an appropriately large food warehouse! It’s not the fort itself, this is the――mogah!!」
I stuff a hand in the mouth that unconsciously exclaims loudly out of excitement.
「……what are you doing?」
「I suddenly got aroused. I can’t stick my dick in her mouth so I made due with a finger.」
Aldo tilts his head at the splendid excuse and walks underground.
What awaited us there was――hell.
「I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I won’t run away! So please stoooop!」
「It’s ripping! Gyaaaa! It hurts, it hurts――!! No more……kill me……kill meeeee!!」
「Now we have here a girl from the Federation with white skin, gold hair, blue eyes, and of course she is a virgin! She’s all yours for 20 gold!!」
「On your right, we have a bare-handed twelve year old boy! On your left, we have a ten year old girl wielding an axe! Let’s see who will be the winner in this battle to the death!」
I hear shrieks, cheers and vulgar laughter.
「Your job is to act as this place’s guard. Business troubles are unending and the customers here aren’t decent people. If anybody complains, use the strength you’re proud of to――」
「Fumufumu, I get it.」
I grin as I rest a hand on Aldo’s shoulder.
